Google Glass DevCamp Event Being Organized to Create More Apps

The first-ever GlassDevCamp will be held this summer to encourage development of apps for Google Glass, according to organizers.

Google Glass devices are hitting the streets slowly, but the demand for apps that run on the head-mounted computers is just starting to take off.
That's the belief of the organizers of the inaugural community-led, non-profit GlassDevCamp, which will be held sometime this summer in the San Francisco Bay area as a two-day Glass development event for innovation, creation and idea expansion using the Google Mirror API.
Led by two earlier iOS DevCamp groundbreakers—William Hurley, who is better known in the open-source and IT communities as whurley, and former IT analyst Raven Zachary—the GlassDevCamp will be open to developers, Glass users, Glass enthusiasts and anyone else who wants to be a part of the event, said whurley. Raven and whurley are the co-founders of similar DevCamp events that are held each year for iOS users and developers.
"The event format is 'unconference' or Barcamp-style, featuring content from the participants themselves," whurley told eWEEK in an interview. "GlassDevCamp is operated by volunteers as a celebration of the Google Glass platform."

And that's why no event dates, fees or location have yet been announced, he said, because organizers first need to see how many people want to sign up to attend before they determine how much space will be needed. "That's kind of how the DevCamps work," he said. "It's a community event, so you want it to be as inclusive as possible."

Registration for the event stands so far at 170 after just a day and is expected to grow over the next few weeks, said whurley, who is the labs general manager for Chaotic Moon Studios, which builds mobile applications.
GlassDevCamp will be held over a weekend, from early evening on a Friday through late afternoon on a Sunday, according to the group. "People will gather, form teams, build new glassware apps for Google Glass using the Google Mirror API, get up onstage to demo their creations, and then prizes will be awarded for the best glassware apps created during the event."
Asked why he and Zachary are creating the event despite Google's own Glass Foundry developers events for Glass, whurley said the GlassDevCamp is different because it is open to anyone who is interested in the technology, not just hard-core developers. "That's a really big thing," he said. "You don't even have to have Glass to participate. People can just come with ideas."
The GlassDevCamp organizers say they intend to talk with Google about endorsing the event, but that such an arrangement won't decide its success. "Right now this is not about Google," said whurley. "It's about a group of extremely excited people and about getting people together to make as many cool new Glass apps as possible."